Coaches,

While watching the events that unfolded at Peden Stadium this past Saturday against Texas State, a few things became very clear to me. I’ll start with the positive things I noted.
This Ohio Bobcats football team is absolutely loaded with talent. Greg Windham has great arm strength, and while he did not display great accuracy on Saturday that can easily be chalked up to jitters from his first career start. Windham also ran the option with great success, save the crucial fumble, speaking to his decision making skills. Papi White is probably the best all-around playmaker in the MAC and that was on display a lot this past weekend. Maleek Irons and Dorian Brown make one heck of a ground and pound combination. The offensive line allowed zero sacks and provided a strong push up front that the running backs were able to take advantage of. Elijah Ball played extremely well in his first extended game action of his career. Jordan Reid was his normal un-guardable looking self. The defense held Texas State to 2.5 yards per rush despite being on the field for over ninety snaps. Cleon Aloese and Tony Porter are both clearly forces to be reckon with in the middle of the line. Tarell Basham did what he does and made Texas States left tackle look terrible. Quentin Poling, the best linebacker in the MAC by far, flew around the field making tackle after tackle like he has every single game for the past two years. Chad Moore, Blair Brown, and Evan Croutch all showed why this should be the best linebacking corps our conference has to offer.
Now to the point of this letter, we lost this game to a team we were favored to beat by 20 points because our offensive and defensive game plans are both easily described by one simple word- VANILLA. Screen passes, option runs, runs up the gut, a couple deep balls and some slant patterns. That’s the entirety of the offense. Seriously. You went into halftime losing, with a sputtering offense and you couldn’t even muster up the guts to run a flea flicker? No wonder most of the student body leaves at halftime. As for the defense, could we send the linebackers on a blitz occasionally? Or maybe even a safety? For 90% of that game we stuck to the base defense, rushing four linemen, dropping the linebackers into coverage, and playing really soft off coverage with the DB’s. This continued into the second half, even when Texas State figured out they could pick us apart with underneath crossing routes and out routes. Yet very few adjustments were made and while a few corner blitzes were run, it just wasn’t enough. I understand you don’t want to give up the deep ball, but don’t you also want to stop somebody? Play some bump and run, show your young corners that you trust them in coverage, otherwise they will never have the confidence necessary to stop anyone. So what if they do give up a big play, every elite NFL cornerback has given up one or two of those. At the very least we could disguise or packages better, show blitz and then drop the linebackers or maybe send a linebacker on a delayed blitz, maybe even run more stunts with the lineman. The point is, do something new please, because the same old game plan just isn’t working. This loss doesn’t rest with the players, it rests with the coaching staff that failed to make necessary defensive adjustments to stop Texas States offense and failed to get the offense going for an entire half against a lackluster defense. Let me end by stating that the purpose of this letter is not to put any member of the coaching staff on the proverbial hot seat, but instead to motivate them to change their ways. Because a team with this much talent and potential should desire nothing less than the MAC Championship and a significant bowl berth. The coaching staff assembled this talented roster, now it’s time for them to lead this team to their full potential.


-A modest Ohio Football Fan

Some here will explain the reason for vanilla: because we don't want to show everything we have in the bag in Week 1. I can see the reasoning behind it, doesn't mean I agree with it. Win the damn game. I don't care how.

Agree you don't want to empty the bag in week one....but when you are LOSING to a team you are three touchdown favorites against.....there needs to be a moment of - as you said - WIN THE DAMN GAME.

I don't think they ever did anything to secure that. They got a gift fumble to go up 10pts in the 4Q and still.....sat back on their heels and allowed TxSt to go down the field...not once....not twice...but three times in the final quarter to force OT.

Sad.

Frank has shown ability to hang tough with a lot of P5 schools....maybe this serves as a wake-up call and they play KU tough.

But I'm sorry...I believe the players are talented enough to win at Kansas....I just have ZERO faith in the coaching staff after last wknd (and last few years) to put together a gameplan that puts them in position to win.